Current Insights on Breast Density, Contrast-Enhanced Mammography and Supplemental Breast Cancer Screening

For Wendie Berg, MD, PhD, FACR, FSBI, conducting and disseminating research and education on breast cancer screening has been a driving force in her career and a personal mission as well. Her mother had breast cancer, her aunt had breast cancer and Dr. Berg is a breast cancer survivor. In a recent interview, Dr. Berg emphasized the importance of timely supplemental breast imaging in women with dense breasts.

“It’s very hard when you see a patient who has a cancer that is larger than it needed to be that wasn’t seen on a recent mammogram, and she didn’t know she had dense breasts and didn’t know she could have had additional screening that could have found the cancer earlier,” noted Dr. Berg, a professor of radiology at the University of Pittsburgh. “I’m trying to reduce that from happening to other women.”

In April 2015, Dr. Berg co-founded www.DenseBreast-info.org, which provides patient-oriented and provider-focused resources on dense breasts, a key risk factor for the development of breast cancer. On the recent World Dense Breast Day (September 28, 2022), Dr. Berg said the website had a reach of over 8 million people on social media platforms with visits from 37 countries and over 17,000 content engagements.

One of the leading researchers on breast imaging, Dr. Berg said contrast-enhanced mammography is a promising advance that can help detect breast cancer that may not be apparent on digital mammography. She also noted that contrast-enhanced mammography has practical advantages as it can be performed with existing equipment, minimal software upgrades and contrast that is inexpensive.

For more insights from Dr. Berg, watch the video below.